1. The Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to communication networks, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to systems, programs, and methods for building search queries using graphical components.
2. Description of Related Art
A “search engine” is a software tool running on a computer that allows users to search for selected electronic content. In the simplest terms, a search engine assists users in locating selected information. For example, popular search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others, allow users to search for desired websites on the Internet. Websites may also provide their own internal search engines that allow users to search content internal to the websites. For example, an e-commerce website may provide an internal search engine that allows users to search for desired products offered for sale on the e-commerce website.
A search engine typically provides a “front end” user interface on a user computer that allows the user to define a search query. For example, the user interface may be generated on a webpage rendered by a web browser running on the user computer. By far the most popular user interface is that of a text box, or field, that allows users to manually enter keywords. The search engine then utilizes algorithmic functions and criteria to find keyword matches in the information stored in the databases to determine a set of search results. The search engine then sorts through the results of the search and provides a prioritized, or ranked, listing of search results to the user. The various search engines differ in their methods used for determining priority or ranking. In the case of an e-commerce website, the listing of search results may be ranked or prioritized based on purchase information, that is, best selling products may be ranked highest in the search results. Alternatively, the listing of search results may be ranked based on a predicted interest of the user. The products in the search results may be ranked by other key metrics, including click count, purchase count, pricing margins, etc.
Although the use of the text box, or field, in conjunction with a traditional search interface is time tested, improvements are still being sought. For example, traditional text-based searching does not easily allow a user to search amorphous concepts. Further, traditional text-based searching does not easily allow a user to combine separate, amorphous concepts into a single search result. In addition, traditional text-based searching does not allow users to place increased emphasis or weight on individual elements used to form the search terms.
Further, while graphical search tools exists, such as Google's Image Search, these search tools return images similar to a searched image rather than using an abstract concept represented by the image.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present disclosure. The present disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the present disclosure will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the present disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.